The Yuletide picture from Dallas Jenkins claims third place at the weekend box office.
The brass at Lionsgate studio and their partners from the Christian production outfit Kingdom Story Company must be thrilled with the opening performance of The Best Christmas Pageant Ever: it delivered $10.7 million from Friday through Sunday, according to The Numbers website. That result makes clear that the decision to go with a big distribution footprint - 3,000-plus theaters as we reported - was definitely the right one.
This faith-based comedy, directed by Dallas Jenkins of The Chosen fame, also proved to be a crowd pleaser. It garnered an A rating from CinemaScore - just missing the top mark of A+ - from audiences surveyed on opening night.
The story is based on the bestselling 1972 book by the same name from the late American author Barbara Robinson. It tells a tale of a popular smalltown church play that is taken over by six rough, young siblings who are "absolutely the worst," as the synopsis puts it. They manage to land leading parts in the production and, much to the surprise of everyone, "unwittingly teach a community the true meaning of Christmas."
Jenkins is not the only committed Believer behind the scenes on this one, as the leaders of the aforementioned Kingdom Story Company - Andrew Erwin, Jon Erwin, and Kevin Downes - are all producers of the film. Their studio is the top outfit right now in the Christian genre, with movies like Unsung Hero (2024), Ordinary Angels (2024), and Jesus Revolution (2023) among the most recent hits.